Tele-presence refers to a set of technologies which allow a person to feel as if they were present. Tele-presence technologies reproduce information on five senses a person feels in a specific space at a remote location. Element technologies for tele-presence may include video, audio, tactile, and network transmission technologies. Such tele-presence technologies are adopted for video conference systems. Tele-presence-based video conference systems provide higher-quality communications and allow users to further concentrate on the conversation compared to conventional video conference systems.
The tele-presence technologies for video conference systems, although showing a little difference for each and every manufacturer, may be applicable to video, audio, and network transmission technologies as follows:
For video technologies, the tele-presence technologies apply as generating natural eye-contact images for being able to make a user further feel like he would face another user and generating high-resolution images. For audio technologies, the tele-presence technologies apply as audio playback technologies that may create a feeling of a space based on a speaker's location. For network transmission technologies, the tele-presence technologies apply as real-time image/sound transmission technologies based on an MCU (Multi Control Unit).
Despite the continuing research on the video, audio, or network transmission areas for video conferences, no method is known that can identify whether any attendees sufficient to proceed with a conference are present in a remote site, thus causing inconvenience, such as conducting such identification through other channels or connecting to a video conference system, or having a waiting time.